


Get a Rhythm

by Athgalla



Category: Metalocalypse (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, earlyklok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Athgalla/pseuds/Athgalla
Summary: Pickles decides to drag Toki out for some chill palling around turned unexpected feels jam.
Relationships: Pickles the Drummer & Toki Wartooth
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Get a Rhythm

“Why you takes me out here?” Toki’s voice was soft and curious. Rich brown hair fell over his shoulders, glinting in the blaze of sunset. The wash of the sea set a thrumming, steady rhythm in the background.

Pickles shrugged, eyes meeting the icy blues of the younger man. His hair was really starting to get long, and it looked much glossier these days, too. He smiled inwardly as he noted that, remembering how flat it had looked when they met…and it had been falling out, too.

“I’unno, I jest, I thought it might be nice to teek a break. It gets cramped in that apartment, you know?”

Toki stared out at the sea, “Mm.. I don’t… Hm. Minds it much. Dids I say dats right?”

Pickles nodded, “Spot on. Anyway, the ocean’s nice. I bet you saw it a lot growing up in Norway. Skwisgaar told me there’s a lot of that. Uh, coast and whatnot.”

A moment of silence passed between them, making Pickles shift a little uncomfortably. Toki finally spoke, “Nei…” he heaved a sigh, “I didn’t. I didn’t really gets to sees it very often.”

The drummer raised a curious eyebrow. Maybe he’d figure this kid out eventually. Something about that skinny little thing, wringing his hands in the half-light, covered in dirt and smelling of fear and gumption was so familiar. It always took one to know one, and Pickles sensed something tumultuous churning beneath the surface in this kid. Worse, he’d been having an awful lot of nightmares about him.

“Yeah? Neither did I. Well, there was the Great Lakes, I guess. We uh… we went out to my uncle’s cabin sometimes. I liked it when I could sneak off at least and go smoke in the woods n stuff. Being in that cramped thing with my family wasn’t great.” He almost choked out the last few words. Ugh, _vulnerability._

“Dats sound nice thoughts… I wish my familys did dats. I just wents into towns with them sometimes, but nots much. They weres, uh, how do I say…”

“Strict?”

“I thinks dats de word.”

Pickles sighed and pulled a lopsided, melancholy smile as he lit up a cigarette, “Mine, too. Church on Sunday. Do this, do that. Oh, you didn’t do it right! You don’t do nothin’ right! You know the drill. Heh.”

Toki’s eyes seemed to glaze over for a second, swinging his legs back and forth on the dock, “Heh, ja, s-same.”

Pickles drew himself up, making his face as stiff as he could in mimicry of his parents, “Hurr, Jesus said do this, do that, and then they turn around and don’t do the same thing! I say my brother was bein’ a jackass, I get ‘don’t judge, he’s tryin’’, and then my mahm…fuck, she goes, she gossips all about ‘Lisa and Karen and the church social did such and such!’ Made me sick to my stomach hearin’ her prattlin’ on and on and actin’ like she’s better than everyone! Glad I’m outta there- hm?”

Toki shuddred. It was hard to catch as the wind ruffled his hair and clothes, but Pickles noticed. His eyes seemed far away again.

“Toki?”

“Cans we nots talks about dat kinds of things rights now?” he met Pickles’ green gaze pleadingly.

Pickles halted, “Yeh, of course. Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit a nerve, there.”

Silence again.

Toki’s brow slowly furrowed and he balled his fists into his shirt. There it was, that cold and steely but firey look again. He started talking, “It’s just, I don’ts wants to t’inks about dems, you know? How dey boss Toki around. How I never does anything right, how I always in trouble and needs to chops wood, and hauls it ups de hill and back again to learns ‘repsecs’ or ‘dilgigence’ or whatever! Bullshit! And den I don’ts does it rights, so I asks how, and dey just hits me, and I wants to hits them back sometimes but I can’ts! And nows I’m here, dey probably hates me more now, dey probably thinks Toki hates dem and I do and I don’ts and I…I…” he huffed, then broke off into a pained snarl, tears stinging at his eyes.

Pickles stared at him, taken aback, and took a drag off his cigarette before offering it to Toki. Toki took it roughly, still staring coldly out over the ocean.

“I get it.” Pickles muttered, “A little. I get it a little.”

Another long silence. Both of them were getting fidgety. Toki broke it again, seeming to be at his wits’ end with his internal ruminations, “Pickle, can we talks about somethings please?”

Pickles jolted, “Hm? Yeh! Yeh, of course. Um. So. You’ve got, uh, really got somethin’ goin’ on with that guitar there, and it looks like you pick up on other stuff easy, too. Like when we were bullshittin’ around with that keyboard Murderface picked up at the dimestore the other day.”

The ghost of a smile pulled at Toki’s face, causing the sad excuse of a mustache emerging on his lip to twitch.

 _Cat whiskers…_ Pickles thought for a moment, blushing at how embarrassingly adorable the consideration was.

“Takk, takk!”

“Fuck does that meen, kid?”

“Thanks, thanks! I really means it. I thought I wasn’t very goods, I means, you knows _everythings_ , all de music things, I mean, and probably lots of other things, too!”

Pickles waved a hand dismissively, that trademark lopsided grin pulling at his face again, “Oh, hell, it’s all just practice n’ passion, y’know? You just need to get the practice part down, if you even need it.”

Toki giggled softly. The sea breeze rose, causing his hair to dance around his pale face. It almost looked weightless.

“Yer, yer lookin’ a lot healthier these days. I’m glad. It looks like yer hair stopped comin’ out, too.”

Toki nodded, “It dids, I thinks.”

“Now you won’t shed all over the couch so much like fuckin’ Skwisgaar. I think he stresses himself out too much.”

“Oh, he definitelys does. Now you can’ts says I ams de ones who ams cloggings the drains, so ha!”

Pickles smirked, “Yer right. Maybe. Y’know, I wasn’t much younger’n you when I left home and started doin’, uh, this whole thing.”

Toki looked at him in surprise, “Dethklok’s been arounds dat longs?”

“No, no! Hell, no. I was in Snakes n’ Barrels before this. You…you didn’t know about us?”

“I heards de names befores, my friends at de record shops in Lillehammer didn’ts likes you, hehe! Sorries.”

Pickles shrugged nonchalantly, “Don’t be. It don’t matter. This gig’s a lot more brutal, anyway. Nicer for shakin’ out anger, at least.”

Toki nodded, “Ja, I likes dat part.”

“Y’know, I really admire you, kid.”

Toki flushed, jerking his head to look at Pickles again, “Huh?”

Pickles’ gaze was level, “I’m serious. You seem like someone with a lotta guts and a lotta talent. And I won’t make you talk about it, but I think mebbe we got somethin’ in common, like, the past bein’ shit. And, well, I like how brave you are, and how you smile anyway. I don’t think I learned how to do that. You were half starved and looked like a drowned fuckin’ rat when you showed up to audition, and you still smiled. And, and, till we get everythin’ in order, we’re still in a shitty, cramped, smelly apartment, and you still get up and help us out and make snacks, and you smile, and you sing even when you’re burnin’ bacon again. Stop doin’ that, though. Please. But I like that, it really helps me, like, not get so gloomy, y’know? I haven’t even been quite as fucked up as usual since you came around. Once we got you aboard, suddenly we get all this attention. I think you got somethin’. I don’t know what it is, but it sure is _somethin’._ ”

Before Pickles could take a breath, a weight hit him as Toki crashed into him and snaked his arms around his small frame. _Jeez, this kid is strong!_ A shaking breath brushed past his ear. Toki shuddered every so slightly, pulling Pickles even closer.

“Takk, takk, takk, takk…fy da, takk!”

Finally, Toki released him and brushed his hair out of his face bashfully, “S-sorries, I just, dat’s…dat’s de nicest things anyones ever saids to me. You really means all dats?”

Pickles chuffed, face flushed, and landed a playful punch on Toki’s shoulder, “C’mahn, of course, but don’t make me talk about it more or I’ll throw up.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I said yesterday I'd stop being so shy about my Metalocalypse stuff and buck up and post something so here's one of my fave short little things I've done.  
> I'm really curious about Toki and Pickles' dynamic and would love to see them having some heart to hearts about abusive upbringings of various flavors, being young musicians, and so on. 
> 
> I also didn't edit it much so please forgive me as it's likely still pretty messy. 
> 
> I have no title ideas so uh, Johnny Cash references, everyone!


End file.
